420 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 3, 1888. 
gentlemanly understrapper, who is willing to 
become the facile servant of his superior 
officials, and not their equal and aid, is what 
is wanted. Who on earth is there worth 
only a salary of £200 a year who is qualified to 
become the director of such a man as Mr. 
Barron, or even of Mr. Dick, both of whom 
have faithfully and right loyally served the 
society for over a quarter of a century 1 
The very suggestion of such an appointment 
compels one to ask in all seriousness what 
have either of these able men done that they 
should have to submit to such an indignity 1 
It is all very well to beslaver them with 
praise—they deserve a full measure of it for 
past services—but there can be only one 
meaning in this very plain hint to take a back 
seat. Had the Council offered £500 or £600 
per annum, then might it expect to have in 
return the best business capacity which 
horticulture can furnish. Our contemporary 
above referred to—and it is an admission of 
some significance, coming from such a quarter- 
fears that as a first class man cannot be got 
for the salary offered, that an ornamental 
official only is likely to result, who would be 
as useless as most of his predecessors. Thus 
the appointment is contemned at the outset. 
With respect to the resignation of Mr. Lee 
and Mr. Courtauld so shortly after their 
re-election, some compensation is afforded in 
the appointment of Mr. T. B. Haywood and 
Mr. J. Woodbridge—the latter to be, we 
hope, something more than an “ ornamental ” 
gardener on the Council. But those who 
were present at the recent annual general 
meeting of the Fellows, or who have read 
the report of the proceedings, will not have 
forgotten that the new secretary, the Rev. 
W. Wilks, Avith curious taste, in congratu¬ 
lating the already re-elected members of the 
Council on them readiness to submit to re- 
election at that meeting, employed the some- 
Avliat dubious metaphor of the rats and the 
sinking ship, and stated that the gentlemen 
in question were unlike those proverbial 
creatures. That metaphor must have grated 
somewhat harshly on the ears of the three 
estimable gentlemen who really did withdraw 
from the Council, and must now be regarded 
as singularly unpleasant, when we find that two 
of the re-elected gentlemen so complimented 
had even then agreed to AvithdraAv from the 
Council the moment the meeting Avas OA r er. 
In Mr. Wilks’ eyes, are these gentlemen 
“ rats” 1 We rather think that in the course 
they have taken they haA'e acted honourably, 
but possibly from mistaken motryes. We 
can but hope that the appointment of Messrs. 
Haywood and Woodbridge Avill more than 
compensate for the loss of Messrs. Lee and 
Courtauld; but Avhen to these gentlemen is 
added the names of Colonel Trevor Clarke, 
Major Mason, and Mr. W. Haughton (the 
late treasurer), it becomes only too painfully 
obvious that great compensatory benefits must 
be shown by the neAv members of the 
Council. The subject of the society’s gradual 
decline is too grave for humour, though it is 
hardly possible to ignore the portentous 
remark of a wag that the Council, in ap¬ 
pointing a clergyman as secretary, seems 
anxious not only to expire decently, but also 
to have the unfortunate society interred with 
canonical honours. The joke is a grim one; but, 
alas, too many a true word is spoken in jest. 
We have been much pleased to find another 
influential contemporary showing strong oppo¬ 
sition to the ambitious schemes of the committee 
of advice in relation to the Victoria Street 
habitation. The accumulation of expenditure 
in this foolish way at a time when the society 
is over head and ears in debt is little less than 
madness. There is absolutely not a particle of 
evidence to show that the Drill Hall at Pimlico 
will in any way attract visitors to the society’s 
meetings, whilst it is cold, bald, and wretchedly 
unfit for the purposes to Avhich it is to be put. 
Should the scheme proA'e a failure—and it 
Avears that aspect now—not only Avill it land 
the society into absolute bankruptcy, but it 
Avill destroy Chiswick Gardens utterly, and 
thus will be lost to horticulture the only truly 
practical public horticultural garden in the 
kingdom. This would be a distressing 
disaster—one, indeed, Avhich could neA'er be 
recovered, for Chiswick once lost, the society’s 
experimental garden is gone for ever. Had 
the Council, or its committee of advice, but 
determined to stick to Chiswick—to make it 
the very backbone of the society’s labour and 
reputation—universal satisfaction Avould have 
been felt. 
The proposed half-guinea associateship for 
bona fide gardeners “ of good repute ” is robbed 
of its value chiefly because it Avill create a race 
of pariahs, who are denied that equality which 
the richer subscribers may have for payment. 
The real horticultural strength and force of the 
kingdom—viz., the practical gardener element— 
is to be treated as unfit to exercise the franchise 
in the government of the society; whilst the 
biggest ass in the world, or the most intolerable 
blockhead, if he can afford 21s. per annum, 
may have the franchise. The proposition is 
insulting and degrading. If the subscriber of 
21s. is to have the same voting privileges as the 
subscriber of four times that amount, why may 
not the subscriber of balf-a-guinea have the 
same prmleges as the one enjoys Avho pays 
only tAvice as much 1 The position is utterly 
inconsistent and beyond logical defence. We 
should like, too, to have a definition of the term 
“good repute,” and also to be informed Avhether 
the same condition as to personal reputation 
will be applied to subscribers of larger amounts, 
or Avill the larger payment cover the proverbial 
“ multitude of sins ” 1 
Some suggestions put forth as to shows, 
both at ChisAvick and in the City, are absurd 
in face of the fact that the society is already up 
to its ears in debt, and every item of expenditure 
does but add to it. Whatever may be said in 
favour of a policy of boldness, much more can 
be urged just uoav in favour of a policy of 
discretion ; and that policy should have ignored 
all ambitious ideas, and have taken the society 
bodily to Chiswick, for a year or two at least, 
until it had succeeded in recuperating itself, 
both in the number of its Fellows and in the 
matter of its finances. 
-- 
Early Begonias.— “ Heath End,” an enthusiastic 
and very successful grower of tuberous Begonias, 
writes: —“I have a single tuberous Begonia open to¬ 
day (February 25th), a month earlier than ever before. 
The Liverpool Horticultural Association.—The 
exhibitions of this society to be held during the current 
year are as follows :—The Spring Show of Hyacinths, 
Tulips, Azaleas, &c., will be held in the St. George’s 
Hall on Wednesday, March 21st ; the Ninth Grand 
Exhibition in Sefton Park on Saturday, August 4th, 
and Bank Holiday, August 6th ; and the Great Chrysan¬ 
themum and Fruit Show on Tuesday and Wednesday, 
November 20th and 21st. 
Crystal Palace Flower Shows.—The following 
exhibitions will be held at the Crystal Palace during 
the present year: — .Spring Flowers, March 24th ; 
Great Summer Show, May 12th ; National Eose Show, 
July 7th ; National Co-operative Flower Show, August 
18th ; Fruit Exhibition and Grand National Dahlia 
Show, September 7th and 8th ; Great Autumn Fruit 
Show', October 11th to 13th ; Chrysanthemum Show, 
November 9th and 10th. 
Double Primroses.—Will it be believed that the fol¬ 
lowing paragraph found a place in a newspaper about 
thirty years ago ? It Avas headed Double Primroses, and 
ran thus :—“As I see in your paper a correspondent is 
anxious to know a method of converting single Prim¬ 
roses into double ones, I beg to inform him that when 
in the bud, if he splits them with a blunt knife, and 
inserts a few grains of cayenne pepper, and then leaving 
in the split a piece of straw to keep them open, water 
once a day for a week with lime-water, he will effect 
his purpose. ’ ’ Evidently some wag must have played off 
a joke upon our contemporary, who, in furnishing such 
apieceofinformationforthepeople, didnotsee through it- 
The Coming Rose Shows.—The following is a list of 
the Rose Shows that have been fixed up to the present 
time:—June 30th.—Eltham and Reigate ; July 3rd.— 
Bagshot, Canterbury, Diss, and Hereford ; 4th.— 
Croydon ; 5th.—Bath, Farningham, Hitchin, and 
NorAvich ; 6th. —Sutton ; 7th. —Crystal Palace 
(National Rose Society) ; 10th.—Ipswich ; 11th.— 
Tunbridge Wells ; 12th.—Winchester ; 17th.—Leek 
and Ulverstone ; 18th.—Birkenhead ; 19th.—Helens¬ 
burgh ; 20th.—Darlington (National Rose Society). 
A Novel Chrysanthemum Class.—The indefatigable 
secretary of the National Chrysanthemum Society, Mr. 
William Holmes, has made public a suggestion that a 
Challenge Trophy and £10 in money be offered by the 
society for the best collection of forty-eight blooms, 
twenty-four incurved and twenty-four Japanese, con¬ 
tributed at the next November show, by any Chrysan¬ 
themum or horticultural society on the following 
condi tions: —First, the entry to be made in the name of the 
society. Second, an entry fee of 10f. 6 d. will be charged 
to societies not affiliated with the National. No entry 
fee to be charged to affiliated societies. Third, each 
society competing must be prepared to guarantee that 
the blooms staged are cut from the collections of its 
members only. Fourth, that the forty-eight blooms 
may be the production of one or more growers, at the 
option of the society competing. Fifth, no limit as to 
number of entries from each society, but no society will 
receive more than one prize. Sixth, the cash will be 
paid to the treasurer of the society winning the award, 
to be equitably divided between the contributors. 
The Gardeners’ Orphan Fund.—At the monthly 
meeting of the executive committee, on Feb. 24th, 
after the usual routine business had been got through, 
it was decided, on the recommendation of the sub¬ 
committee appointed to consider the matter, to have a 
popular dinner after the first annual meeting and 
election, at which, it is hoped, there will be a good 
attendance of local secretaries and subscribers to the 
Fund. Mr. J. Lyne, Belvedere House Gardens, 
Wimbledon, Avas elected local secretary for that district. 
Mr. Edward Pynaert, of Ghent, who was present at the 
meeting, was most cordially welcomed by the chairman. 
Mr. Pynaert expressed the pleasure he had felt in being 
present, and hoped that the Fund—of which there was 
nothing similar in Belgium—Avould receive the support 
Avhich so good an object deserved. 
Royal Horticultural Society.—We understand that 
a meeting of the council was held on Tuesday, at which 
power was given to the president, Sir Trevor LaAvrence, 
Bart., M.P., to sign the agreement for the occupation of 
the society’s new premises in Victoria Street, S.W., for 
offices, &c. ; and the Drill Hall of the London Scottish 
Rifle Volunteers, in James Street, Westminster, for ex¬ 
hibitions and shows, the society to enter into possession 
on March 25th. Both premises are conveniently situated 
midway between Victoria and St. James’s Park Stations 
on the Underground Railway. The council also drew 
up and adopted a scheme for the admission of Fellows 
paying £1 Is. subscription, and determined to admit 
as associates, bona fide gardeners or employes at any 
nursery, market garden, or seed establishment, at a 
subscription of 10s. 6 d. a year. The folloAving com¬ 
mittees were appointed:— Finance: Baron Schroder, 
Messrs. T. B. HayAvood, E. G. Loder, H. J. Veitch, 
AA'ith the president, secretary (Rev. W. Wilks), and 
treasurer (Mr. D. Morris). Chiswick Gardens: Col. 
Beddome, Dr. Hogg, Mr. Geo. Paul, Mr. Woodbridge, 
Avith the president, secretary, and treasurer. For 
revising the bye-laws: Messrs. T. B. Haywood, A. H. 
Smee, G. F. Wilson, with the president, secretary, and 
treasurer, coupled AA'ith the request that Messrs. Deal, 
Pearson, and Marshall, members of the Fellows com¬ 
mittee, would be kind enough to confer AA-ith them. 
The trustees of the Lindley Library had an interview 
with the council, and it was determined to remove the 
library to the society’s new rooms at 111, Victoria St, 
Westminster. The next meeting of council is fixed for 
Tuesday, March 6th. 
-->x<-- 
TOMATO NOTES. 
Hoav popular these are becoming ! so much so, that in 
the near future they are likely to prove one of our most 
important and remunerative vegetables for the market 
and the kitchen. Cucumbers are being supplanted 
and their places occupied with Tomatos, or houses of 
similar construction are built for the cultivation of the 
latter. John Bull being an epicurean as well as a 
worker is falling in love with Uncle Jonathan’s Apple, 
and courts its presence in his dishes—soups, sauces, 
pickles, or a dessert. What makes it more valuable 
is that the plant is amenable to our climate and the 
